As promised, here is Part II of Useful Quotes for Training and Education. I have decided, on a whim really, that I will sit down with my new speech students and let them discuss the meaning of the following quotes, and how they might use them in a speech. Of course, there are useful quotes for more than speech class and some of these even fit the bill.

I often use these kinds of quotations to remind my trainees or students in anything I train or teach that learning isn’t just content in the classroom, that experience is important, that failure is only an obstacle, that every moment of everyday is a learning opportunity. It helps sometimes to throw out a name they know or why this person knows what they are talking about.

These quotes were gathered mostly from one site located near the bottom of your page; however there hundreds of similar sites all over the internet, so do a word search on just about any subject and you’ll find. “Robotics” and “artificial intelligence” are easy. Even why a particular law was passed or not passed. Anything. So, quotes are a great way to start or end your speech, or jazz it up in the middle. I have often found the inspiration for a certain viewpoint by following the lead of quote. Of course, it doesn’t always have to be the internet. I have book of quotations as well.

“We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.” – John Holt

“Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.” – Charlotte Joko Beck

“A sense of curiosity is nature’s original school of education.” – Smiley Blanton

“Teach them how to fly.” – Dan Chesbro

Albert Einstein-1921

“The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.” – Marva Collins

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether 20 or 80, anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford

“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.” – Anatole France

“Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.” – Anatole France

“Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.” – Anna Freud

“No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.” – Emma Goldman

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” – John Harvey

“Learning is movement from moment to moment.” – Krishnamurti

Nelson Mandela

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

“In the ideal college, intrinsic education would be available to anyone who wanted it… The college would be life-long, for learning can take place all through life.” – Abraham Maslow

“Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.” – Jean Piaget

“Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.” – Plato

“Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.” – Plato

“Let early education be a sort of amusement. You will then be better able to discover the natural bent.” – Plato

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch

“When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.” – Chinese Proverb

“Human intelligence is richer and more dynamic than we have been led to believe by formal academic education.” – Sir Ken Robinson

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” – Carl Rogers

“Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don’t.” – Pete Seeger

“One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment.” – Merle Shain

“The cure for sorrow is to learn something.” – Barbara Sher

Oprah Winfrey

“The best teachers are the best storytellers. We learn in the form of stories.” – Frank Smith

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” – Mark Twain

“There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons.” – Denis Waitley

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

“Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.” – H. G. Wells

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” – Oscar Wilde

“Education is the mother of leadership.” – Wendell Willkie

“I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves.” – Oprah Winfrey

Meet the Blog’s Host

Jack Shaw is a communicator who does training and has been in the trenches as well as in management and development areas. His priority is how to communicate credibily in the workplace. [Read more ...]